


It's Okay

by allourheroes



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: M/M, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-02
Updated: 2014-01-02
Packaged: 2018-01-07 04:57:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1115780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allourheroes/pseuds/allourheroes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She knows John would stay with her, but that isn't the point.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's Okay

**Author's Note:**

> Set after "The Empty Hearse." I like Mary...but I think she ships them.
> 
>  _"hush, it's okay, dry your eye, dry your eye, soulmate, dry your eye...'cause soulmates never die"_  
>  "Sleeping With Ghosts," Placebo

Mary sighs into her coffee as Sherlock wildly gesticulates and John's brow furrows.

She had always been a bit of a hopeless romantic in her youth, but it had long ago given way to skepticism, to realism. She had stopped believing in true love, in something as silly as soulmates. Mary had been happy with John, satisfied even, but watching him now, she realizes that it is not enough.

Sherlock's nearly overbearing love for her fiancé had been obvious from the moment she met him. He was odd, true, but he had been brilliant and he had looked at John as if he could be the entire world.

Mary would like someone to look at her like that.

She had suspected John might have had feelings for his friend, back when they would visit the man's grave, but his visceral reaction to Sherlock's return had blared at her like the loudest of klaxons.

For a moment there, for a couple of days, she considered that it may not matter. She hoped that John would talk to Sherlock but she didn't quite understand why she felt it so necessary. After all, Sherlock Holmes was the kind of all-encompassing obsession that would leave her lonely. Mary could admit that she, too, found him fascinating, but it was not quite the same. She couldn't allow him to cut Sherlock from his life now that they knew the man was alive. She wanted John to be happy.

She wants to be happy.

Mary feels like a girl again, giddy with the idea. She has witnessed true love, the kind that people thought existed only in fairy tales--albeit with a further range of emotions.

If soulmates exist, perhaps she has someone waiting out there for her. The idea makes what she must do easier to bear.

Mary stands suddenly and neither of them notice her. She didn't expect them to, yet still she rolls her eyes at their obliviousness to anything besides each other and the case.

"Right," she says, hoping she sounds sure. "Well, I'm off."

She kisses John on the cheek and he murmurs something that doesn't quite make sense in his distraction. She leans up to kiss Sherlock on the cheek and even past his surprise, he leans down to return it.

"Take care of him, Mr. Holmes," she whispers.

His eyes meet hers and she smiles. After a second of consideration, he returns it. Mary is certain she sees a strange sort of hope there, of understanding.

She swallows and approaches the door, she turns back to see that John glances between her and Sherlock, his gaze settling questioningly on the detective.

"Bye," she waves and shuts the door tightly behind her.

She is making the right decision.

Back in the flat, John tilts his head. "What did she tell you?" he asks.

"Hm?" The detective's eyes are focused on a point next to the door. "Oh. Nothing important." Sherlock looks at him, but there is something in him that has changed.

John feels something in his chest loosen. "Right," he responds with fond exasperation and Sherlock rattles off something vaguely insulting about a client. "Right," he says again, because it feels like it is.


End file.
